Corporate Advocacy Program: The best way to manage and repair your business reputation. Hiding negative complaints is only a Band-Aid. Consumers want to see how businesses take care of business. All businesses will get complaints. How those businesses take care of those complaints is what separates good businesses from bad businesses.

This entire organization is based on lying and each lie seems to be worse than the last. This is done because anyone who accepts their initial lies will be more apt to accept future lies and the ungodly system that Smart Circle has created. If you are reading this, you are probably aware of the abundance of negative reports available online with just a quick search. People in their thousands have taken the time to warn their fellow man about the horrendous working conditions and the lack of monetary reward regardless of whether or not you can sell. Like a vampire from a B grade film, this company has sucked blood from millions all so that the few at the top of the pyramid can live in their mansions and fill their stomachs with caviar. A regular Nosferatu trawling the Internet and hoping to abscond with your children. [continued below]....

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Although the great majority of reports about this company are very true, they don't tell the full story. Most of these reports come from people who have spent a very short time with Smart Circle and are unaware of the true evil that lurks behind their thin veneer of decency. No strong willed individual would ever put up with their bullshit and will usually leave well before they find out about the demonic despotism which would best describe this organization. The higher you climb, the worse it gets. It's no secret that the vast majority of their "owners" are uncouth criminals who prey on desperate job seekers. Unfortunately, their "regional managers" and "national consultants" are much worse. Like the Mafia, a foot soldier in the Smart Circle crime family doesn't get to be the boss until he has stepped on the throats of the innocent. The inner circle of this organization prides it's self on being ruthless, conniving, and cold hearted. They are always on the lookout for weak willed individuals so that they can first steal from them then mold them into despicable parasites who will do the same to others.

No one report will ever cover all of the tricks used by Smart Circle to corral the masses. Below is just a short list.

RECRUITING LIES

Smart Circle starts it's relationship with it's employees by lying in order to get them to come in for an interview. They promise positions in marketing, advertising and campaign development knowing full well that these jobs do not exist. Why not? They deliberately search for the weak so why not start with outright lies to separate the wheat from the chaff. Their subsidiaries use similar and often identical advertisements to lure unsuspecting job hunters. It's very easy to spot a Smart Circle ad. If you start looking on job boards you will see the same advertisements being posted all over the country. This is quite the coincidence seeing as that their subsidiaries are independent entities.

BRAINWASHING

There are entire articles posted online outlining the manipulative tactics used by Smart Circle to brainwash the gullible. I will not go into detail here, just know that this company is a cult where individuality is not tolerated and all are made to worship the organization and believe that no success can be achieved unless through Smart Circle.

DISHONEST POSTINGS

Knowing all too well that their organization is terrible, Smart Circle feels the need to post positive comments about themselves online. This is necessary because nobody would ever write anything complementary about their business. All you have to do is go to career websites to see what I'm referring to. You will find that the great majority of postings are rated one star with in depth accounts of every facet of their scam. People have written pages and pages warning the world about what Smart Circle will do to them. You will then find the odd two or three sentence review from a "current employee" raving about Smart Circle and giving them five stars. They do this in order to improve their ratings. They also post rebuttals on Ripoff Report and get their secretaries to flag Craigslist postings that warn job seekers about the miserable position they are about to apply for.

FINANCIAL MASS MURDER

The fact that Smart Circle steals from it's reps is not in dispute. Even if they didn't rip their people off, they would still be stealing because it's their reps that do the work while the powers that be profit the most. Although most reps will be with the company for a very short time and not care about getting their last paycheck as they run towards the door, those who remain will be controlled with their own money. Smart Circle will control a rep by holding their pay back for three weeks. Anyone who has spent time with the company knows that reps who quit seldom get their last check. This is just another tool used to keep people coming back seeing as that no one wants to lose the money that they have already earned. Owners are controlled in much the same way. In order to be promoted to "ownership", a rep must give Smart Circle power of attorney over their bank account. Once an owner starts to ask questions, they will be denied access to their money. Who in their right mind would give power of attorney over their own bank account?

DEMEANING THEIR STARS

Keeping in mind that their reps generate all revenue, Smart Circle feels a need to demean and berate the people that make the most sales. These people will be put on a pedestal during the morning meeting giving all who work in that office something to aspire to. They then will be pulled aside by the owner and told that they really aren't that good. Best in the office? They will point to the best in the state. Best in the state? They will point to a rep in California who just happened to beat you last week. Best in the nation? No worries! They will find a way to put you down because why should someone so good be stuck with such a crummy job? They don't want you to know how good you are because you might wake up realize that you are doing all the work. The people that run this company don't generate revenue and are nothing more than useless eaters. Some take home millions of dollars every year by sitting on their behinds and telling tall tales. They want to keep you in a state of confusion and insecurity so that you go out everyday and make sales. They believe that putting you down will make you want to prove them wrong by writing more apps. These are genuinely filthy people who will use every dirty trick in the book to get you to sell.

DECEPTIVE PROMOTION PROCESS

In much the same way that a rep is made to work in order to fund his owner's escapades, Smart Circle gets their owners to fund theirs. They have more stores than they do sales reps and have devised a devilishly delightful system that will stock their retail locations at their owner's expense. They convince their owners that "promoting" their top guys will end up putting more money into their pockets but this is just more Smart Circle BS designed to get others to do the work. They cannibalize their owners' offices and send reps to rural locations where the possibility of finding genuine talent is nonexistent. Is it any wonder that most of their "outside deals" fail? Meanwhile, the promoting owner has just lost his best guys and is stuck having to start all over again.

CONSTANTLY CHANGING NAMES

In my time with the company I never met an owner, regional manager or national consultant that didn't change their business name at least once. Some of these guys have name changes numbering in the double digits. This is no surprise considering that their parent company has changed it's name many times. The Internet would have to be the worst thing that has ever happened to these people. We now live in a age where the truth can be told and demons like those who run this company can be exposed. There is no legitimate reason for a company to keep changing it's name. Fortunately, most of us know that Smart Circle and it's subsidiaries are anything but legitimate.

Sound familiar? It does if you've worked for these bastards. It also sounds familiar if you've done any research on Smart Circle. Isn't it strange that thousands of people all over the world have written reports detailing similar experiences? Not if they're true it isn't.

Corporate Advocacy Program: The best way to manage and repair your business reputation. Hiding negative complaints is only a Band-Aid. Consumers want to see how businesses take care of business. All businesses will get complaints. How those businesses take care of those complaints is what separates good businesses from bad businesses.

AUTHOR: Giselle - ()

SUBMITTED: Thursday, July 31, 2014

POSTED: Thursday, July 31, 2014

This applies not only to Smart Circle, but also to those companies that hawk vacuum cleaners, perfume, knife sets, energy, magazines and coupon books, auto cleaning supplies, office supplies, home improvement, DirecTv, etc. Sometimes they are door to door in residential neighborhoods, sometimes to businesses, sometimes they are set up in Sam's Club or Home Dept and sometimes they approach people in parking lots or in the streets. Either way, they work pretty much the same.

A. They contact you, after finding your resume (generally your unimpressive resume) online. OR, you respond to a vague job ad and are contacted for a job interview straight away.

B. The job ad might name several different positions open with titles ranging from administrative, customer service, sales, marketing executive, entry level managers, account reps, etc. These different job titles are ALL for the same D2D 100% commission only job! And ask yourself, what small offices you know of do hiring across the board for such a myriad of job openings? They don't. Again, it's just done to attract as many applicants as possible when there is, in fact, only one job title.

C. You are promised a quick promotion into management and owning your own office. Some offices even claim this is possible within 3-4 weeks of starting. Now, does that even sound plausible to you? The trick to this is your must recuit a certain number of workers under you who commit to staying. Kinda hard to do when most people quit these door to door scams almost immediately.

D. They either do not have a website or the website is vague about who they are and what they do. A typical website will say something along the lines of "...privately owned marketing firm specializing in outsourced sales and marketing for some of the largest service-based companies nation and world-wide...our sales approach is unique and innovative..." Now, does that really tell you anything about the company? Also, you will notice the website is usually full of pictures of the employees, all looking to be 18-24 years of age and wearing poor-fitting suits, having fun at places like the beach, swimming pools, out to dinner, etc. Is it normal for a professional company to use their website to focus on how much fun their employees are having? No, it's not. Why do companies do this? Answer: because they want you to think that working for them means young people like yourself, who are friends and have constant fun-times just hanging out.

It may be that you cannot find a website for the company or cannot find any information about the company name at all. This is because these companies are constantly having to change their names, due to all the negative reports about them posted by former employees and upset homeowners / businesses / customers / relatives and friends of former employees.

E. You go to the interview, expecting a 1:1 and it's a group interview, i.e. a 'cattle call'. It would be a waste of time to interview people one on one because so many people walk out on the first interview or the next day where it's an all-day 'interview' and when you finally learn what the job is about.

Back to the first interview, you will hear a sales pitch about how great the company is and how rich the owner and upper management are. But, you stil won't know what the company does, what you would be doing, pay, benefits, etc. Questions are deflected and anyone who asks too many probing questions is either kicked out of the interview or not called back for round two. But sit there quietly and you will be called to show up the nect day. In fact, basically anyone with a pulse will be called back.

If you show up the next day (after having been advised to dress professionally and wear comfortable shoes) you will find out that you are not an actual employee, but rather a 1099 (independent contractor). You are responsible at the end of the year for paying your own taxes. There are NO benefits and you are not reimbursed for gas, meals, etc. Despite being in violation of 1099 laws, you find out that you are required to report to work for a specified time and you must attend unpaid weekly meetings. You are on this second interview assigned to 'shadow' someone and this is when you find out that you are peddling crap no one wants, door to door for 10+ hours a day. You will NOT be paid for training, as previously promised. You may have been told that all leads are pre-set, but this is not true as you find yourself going door to door or approaching random people. If you don't sell, you don't make any money. Many people have reported losing their apartments, cars, significant others and draining their bank accounts, all because the job is a fast-track to broke. Often, people will report making sales but being told the customer cancelled. Some people will contact the customers and find out they did not cancel and it was a lie to keep from paying them. There are reports of being arrested due to lack of a solicitors permit. You are told to knock on doors and not worry about. But, if you get arrested, it is on you to bail yourself out of jail and pay any fines and court costs.

Try the job, by all means, if you want. Just make sure that you live with your parents and have savings to fall back on. Otherwise, this is a very expensive life-lesson to learn. You will be scorned when you quit with comments like 'go work at McDonalds'. Know what? People working at McDonalds are making more money. They have a schedule, benefits, an hourly wage and can plan a budget. They also aren't working outside in all elements of weather, walking for miles and miles and using their personal vehicles to drive around in and knocking on doors of complete strangers (that is not even remotely safe).

My advice: go to college or learn a trade..if you have already done that, don't waste it on door to door, commission only sales jobs. Get a real job with a real salary and real benefits. Open your own business. Do what you want. But just be careful of these type companies mentioned throughout this posting.

Corporate Advocacy Program: The best way to manage and repair your business reputation. Hiding negative complaints is only a Band-Aid. Consumers want to see how businesses take care of business. All businesses will get complaints. How those businesses take care of those complaints is what separates good businesses from bad businesses.